Riveroflife

This Sugar Maple struck me as particularly beautiful in the Caney Mountain Refuge in the late afternoon sun.

Click to enlarge.

This guy (could be a young female too) was incredible. Females also has a red tuft on their heads in this species of woodpecker.  Born summer 2008, he is already an excellent grub hunter. He worked a sycamore tree for about 20 minutes, peering in every hole, digging out the bark and leaves and finding many nice sized grubs. He (she) sometimes sent down a shower of sycamore dust and bark; then I saw dried leaves coming down too and realized he was just cleaning out all the holes in the tree. The call was adult and he called out about every 5 minutes. As you can see, he is not fully mature yet; smaller in size, less white feathering, and a not so cool “tuft”. Taken with a Canon 5D and Canon 400mm f5.6 lens hand held.

The colors in the North Fork valley are past their peak; but some great yellows and golds still exist in pockets and full color exists one some sheltered slopes. Click to enlarge.

This pictures of the typical foggy early morning hours in Ozark County. This was taken not too long after sunrise on a farm road of Highway H just south of the Crossroads Store.

This picture was taken from a river cabin at ROLF at 125 yards with 840mm f4 on a Canon 5D body. This pictures is actually 30″ x 40″ and is cropped and re-sized downward.

This picture was taken in late August on the east side of the river at 6:00 AM.

Which is the long lens I use with a 1.4X TC to reach out to 840mm for close-ups of birds, etc. It is connected to a Canon 5D full frame DSLR.

During late afternoon, I took this photo with my Canon 5D and a 24mm f4 lens to capture what I though was a standard look of the clear North Fork water enhanced by yellowing sycamore trees. Click to enlarge.

Caught on the North Fork, I believe around the left side of the island below Blair Bridge. Brian is a professional Guide who works out of ROLF. Click to enlarge. Courtesy Brian Wise.

I took this picture with a 105 mm on a Canon 5D DSLR so I wasn’t as close as it looks — but still too close. This snake was not active (actually kind of lethargic in the 44F morning temperatures).